THUNDER BAY - Traffic will be flowing a little differently at two south side intersections, and as the city believes, more efficiently.
Traffic lights at the intersection of Brown Street and Frederica Street have already been removed, and the lights at the intersection of Donald Street and Vickers Street will be removed in the coming weeks.
Four-way stop signs will be added in place of the traffic lights, which David Binch, traffic technologist with the city of Thunder Bay, says will create a more efficient traffic flow.
“With the decrease in population it may be better for a four-way stop controls as it actually allows for less delays for drivers and less delay equates to more money and more time for the commuters of Thunder Bay,” he said.
The city’s engineering department continually monitors all signalized intersections and it identified the intersections of Frederica and Brown and Donald and Vickers as no longer requiring traffic signals.
The threshold for justifying a signalized intersection in the city is 720 vehicles per hour and the two identified intersections were well below that.
“The Donald and Vickers intersection experiences about 300 vehicles per hour, so it is much below the threshold and it has been continuing over the last few years, so we feel it is best to make the change. Brown and Frederica sees about 250, so it is equivalent,” Binch said.
According to Binch, the changes in traffic flow could be the result of decreasing populations in the neighbourhoods or changes to traffic flow.
Prior to the change, public consultations were held and Binch said those in the areas near the two intersections felt the traffic lights were no longer needed.
“There was overwhelming consensus that signals should be removed and four-way stop controls should be implemented,” he said.
The engineering department has identified other intersections throughout the city that may no longer meet the threshold to justify traffic signals, but Binch said monitoring is done over the course of several years and it is an ongoing process to determine if signals are to be removed.
“We are looking at a few in the south core and downtown north core intersections,” he said. “We are still reviewing all the data at this point so we don’t have any definite locations but we will keep the public informed.”
The traffic lights at the intersection of Donald Street and Vickers Street will be removed on Aug. 9, 2022. Work is expected to take approximately two days. The lights will be changed to a flashing four-way stop in the days leading up to the removal to prepare drivers for the change.
